The planet was presumably located in the Dorvan sector, which would place it in the Demilitarized Zone. Neither the connection with the Dorvan sector, or the planet being in the DMZ, was outright stated.

Around 2350, a group of NorthAmerican Indians settled the planet, building a village in a small valley on the southern continent. This settlement occurred despite being warned that it was hotly disputed by the Cardassians. The group had left Earth 200 years before, in order to preserve their cultural identities, and had been searching for a new world ever since. They settled on Dorvan because the planet did not only have the right environmental conditions, but also was perceived as being welcoming in a spiritual way.

In 2370, after a long three years of drawn out negotiations, the Federation-Cardassian Treaty defined the final status of the border between the Federation and the Cardassian Union. The new border placed several Federation colonies in Cardassian space and vice versa. One of these Federation colonies, which the Starfleet planned to evacuate, was Dorvan V. This occurred despite an Indian representative being included in the deliberations of the Federation Council, and objecting. It was felt that the Dorvan settlers were a Nomadic group that should never have settled on a disputed planet in the first place.

Shortly thereafter, Starfleet sent the USS Enterprise-D to relocate the settlers. Anticipating the possibility that they would refuse removal, its orders were to be to remove them by whatever means are necessary. The settlers indeed elected to stay, explaining that the place had a deep spiritual significance for them. A resolution to the conflict was reached when the colonists renounced Federation citizenship and agreed to be governed by the Cardassian government. (TNG: "Journey's End")

The producers of Star Trek: Voyager originally intended Dorvan V to be Chakotay's homeworld. (Star Trek Monthly issue 4, p. 55) Although this idea was not established during Voyager's run, the Voyager relaunch novels state that Chakotay and his family were native to Dorvan V. However, "Tattoo" established Chakotay's colony to have been established centuries ago, which does not appear to be consistent with "Journey's End", which stated that the settlers had been on Dorvan for about twenty years. Even though Picard's statement "Dorvan Five? Isn't that where the group of North American Indians settled?" to some degree implies that Dorvan is unique, Chakotay would seem to originate from a second planet of American Indians in the DMZ.

The date the settlers left Earth can be constrained with some accuracy. It was said that the settlers left Earth "more then two hundred years ago", but also that they had searched for the planet for "almost two hundred years". Given that the settlers had been on the planet for "about twenty years", they must have left Earth roughly between 181 and 219 years ago, or between 2151 and 2189. Interestingly, this is consistent with the SS Hatteras, a ship with Native American inspired naming that was launched in 2187.